


To Promethea!

by ZedWishes



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fighting, Kidnapping, Nonbinary Lorelei, Not A Lot of Rhysha But A LOT of Rhyiona Tension, Post-Borderlands 3, Rhys And Fiona Switch Perspectives A Lot, Romantic Tension, Sasha Is Missing, Set On Promethea, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Violence, they/them used for zer0
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-01-30 16:42:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21431422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZedWishes/pseuds/ZedWishes
Summary: Fiona has just arrived on Promethea. Her mission? Find Rhys, find Sasha, and try to navigate a planet that isn't hellbent on murdering every person and creature on it's surface.It can't be as hard as it seems to her. Right?
Relationships: Fiona/Rhys (Borderlands), Rhys/Sasha (Borderlands)
Kudos: 12





	1. Prologue: Arrival.

**Author's Note:**

> Proofread this, but there might be a few mistakes! Hope everyone likes this so I don't feel like a fool for even thinking of the idea.

Fiona hadn't realized just how different Promethea was from Pandora until she walked out of the spacecraft. Skyscrapers that seemed to go on forever painted the sky with neon lights, guards wearing Atlas gear protected almost every building, and people walked along the streets without automatically trying to murder each other. It was foreign to Fiona, sure, but she appreciated the change.

Her ship had landed in an open parking lot, with only one Cyclone parked in the far corner. Fiona had stolen this ship from some poor sucker on Pandora unlucky enough to leave it unattended. It was a medium-sized white and black ship with room for about two people at most, although that would probably be overstating it. By the time Fiona walked out her shoulders were cramped and her knees were sore. 

When Fiona had walked out, she was immediately greeted with blinding, flashing lights that were enough to knock an armor clad giant off their feet. She was knocked backwards and ended up bumping her head on the side of the ship. The thing that emitted the lights was a gun that was held by an Atlas soldier.

"Sorry about that, ma'am, had to do a security check." The guard had sounded barely apologetic

"Like hell you did, you almost blinded me!" Fiona had snapped back. The guard had tried to help her up, but Fiona had slapped his hand away. He had tried to explain that after the war with Maliwan, Atlas had to check every person that they saw enter into their range to see if they had a record of intergalactic war crimes, or something, but Fiona was having none of it. She had kicked the guard in the shins, stole his gun, and then ran before he even had a chance to retaliate.

"Tell Rhys I'm back!" Fiona had yelled, the guard at the time still on the floor groaning in pain. 

Speaking of Rhys, he wasn't even the reason she was here in the first place. Fiona was on Promethea to get her sister. 

Fiona and Rhys frequently kept in contact through ECHOs, and so did Fiona and Sasha. Fiona had never visited Promethea, but before Rhys left to build a corporate empire on the planet, he had given her an ECHO device that could send radio frequencies throughout the galaxy, and with Sasha being Rhys's girlfriend, obviously she got one as well. For a few years, it was a good set-up. Rhys always told Fiona about some new business deal, no matter how menial it seemed to her, and sometimes he would even go into excruciating detail about his "extra special boss dealings" (that was his term for meetings). Every single time Fiona would tune him out. Fiona would never tune her sister out, though, keeping her ears open to all the secret going-ons in Atlas. She basically just repeated a lot of what Rhys said, due to her being his second in command and accompanying him to every meeting, but Fiona held on to every word. 

One day, however, that changed. Usually Fiona would ECHO her sister at sundown, therefore it would be around the morning on Sasha's end. Sasha hadn't picked up that day, so Fiona ECHOed Rhys. He hadn't picked up either. Fiona didn't panic at first, because they were probably just busy, but she certainly did panic when Rhys sent her a jumbled up ECHO with heavy gunfire in the background drowning out his words. The only things she could hear him say were something along the lines of "Sasha", "Maliwan", "war", and "missing". It immediately set off alarm bells in Fiona's head. 

It took a few weeks to actually get her plan together. Fiona was planning on stealing a ship and heading right to Promethea, but she had no idea where Promethea was on this side of the galaxy, how long it would take to get there from Pandora, or whether the ship she would steal would even be able to make the trip. Despite being a vault hunter, she wasn't bathing in riches, so she couldn't afford a ship of her own, nor could she afford one of those fancy maps that directly stated how much of a distance different planets were from Pandora. She had to actually calculate things, and using many means of calculation that would be too much to recount, she figured out that the trip to Promethea would take about a month if your ship was bottom of the barrel garbage.

So, she had stolen a ship, which made the trip to Promethea in a few weeks time. It was like torture for her. Being in a tightly knit space with no human interaction for almost a month makes someone pretty angry, which is exactly what Fiona was when she walked out of her ship. We already saw what happened to the guard, so let's focus our attention on Fiona's present predicament: locating Rhys.

-

Fiona walked along the streets of what she now knew was Lectra City. Apparently this used to be the site of some bandit killing television show, but the host was murdered by a group of Vault Hunters. The city seemed like it had just been power cleaned, which made Fiona assume that it had been a shit show when that TV show was on. 

Rhys had mentioned a war, possibly with Maliwan, on the ECHO, but there was no fighting to be found. Sure, a few stray Children of the Vault roamed the streets picking fights, but Fiona just ignored them. Then again, that guard had told Fiona that there was a war, so was it possible that it was over? 

Fiona's heart leaped at that possibility. This just made her more determined to figure out where Rhys was and get some answers out of him.

And so, she walked. She made her way out of Lectra City and into the Meridian Metroplex, which seemed to be the main part of the area of Promethea she was on. She continued her trek to find Rhys here, but thirstiness decided to rear its ugly head in while she was trying to find clues. She really, really wanted to find her sister, but she hasn't drunk anything in a few days. She wanted to be alive when seeing Sasha and Rhys after all. So Fiona decided to head to the nearest establishment she could find, spare a few bucks so she wouldn't drop dead, and continue her journey. Luckily, she had spotted a coffee shop earlier, so she turned around and redirected her route there.

It wasn't so much a shop as it was a stand. There was a person working behind the counter along with a robot that looked like it had been dismantled a while ago. He had brown hair, a robotic arm, and an ugly moustache that sat like a dormant dog on his face. It disgusted Fiona, but she decided to quit being feisty and try being a little more friendly. 

"Hello, uh, sir," Fiona walked up to him, trying to do her best sickly sweet, innocent voice. "Can I just have some water?"

He seemed distant, looking off into the space behind Fiona instead of directly at her. Fiona cleared her throat.

"Um, sir?" She put a little more force into her voice this time, trying to get him to snap out of whatever it was he was in. It worked, apparently, because he immediately panicked and put a forced smile on his face.

"Oh, ha ha, hi there!" He said, looking at Fiona. "What can I get you?"

"Just a water, please." Fiona's nice voice was faltering, impatience seeping into, and the man could probably tell. He went through the door that was behind him and quickly emerged about ten seconds later with water in a coffee cup. He didn't even put a lid on it. Fiona rolled her eyes, placed a wad of crumpled bills that probably cost more than the water, and took the cup. Fiona chugged the water quickly and slammed it on the desk that separated her and the man. He winced and took the cup.

Fiona was about ready to leave when she noticed something. Something about the man that seemed familiar. She didn't recognize the ugly mustache, but the brown hair, the robot arm, and what she was now noticing as a heterochromic pair of eyes almost made her vomit.

"Rhys?!"


	2. Chapter 1: Revelations.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of things are revealed to Rhys and Fiona in quick succession, which causes their fates to be sealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was gonna wait to post this, but since the last chapter was the prologue, I figured to post the second part sooner than usual. My update schedule for this, by the by, will be every Sunday, so hope you enjoy some waiting!

When she said his name, Rhys had to immediately do a double-take. She sounded exactly like Fiona, except... not? He hadn't heard her actual voice in years. The ECHOcomms, despite offering an approximate replication of the person on the other end's voice, still distorts it quite a little bit. And besides the voice thing, just looking at her, Rhys never would have thought that this was Fiona. 

Her hair had grown down her back, stopping at the mid-point. The red streak had faded out and had never been reapplied, so just the brown color remained. She also wasn't wearing a hat. 

"Fiona?" Rhys almost whispered her name, putting a hand to his head to keep himself from falling. Seeing her on Promethea was a surprise, but far from a good one. She was probably here for Sasha. 

Thinking about Sasha made Rhys lose his balance and fall to the ground. Putting a hand to your head isn't such a great way to maintain your balance. Fiona jumped into action, hopping over the desk that separated them. She clasped her hand in his and pulled him up with ease. Rhys probably shouldn't have been surprised at Fiona's strength, but he was anyways.

"When the hell did you get so strong?" Rhys tried to have a playful tone, but it ended up sounding more hostile than he meant it to be. Fiona glared at him.

"Do you want me to punch you?"

"Nope."

"Okay."

Rhys exhaled the breath he didn't know he was holding. It felt really weird to him, actually talking to Fiona in person. They hadn't done so ever since he left for Promethea. It was also weird because he knew what happened to her sister, and having to explain that would probably result in tears and anguish.

"So, where the hell is Sasha?" Fiona was already gearing up on Rhys, asking him the one question that he dreaded immediately. Rhys hadn't heard her name in weeks, so hearing it from her especially felt like a punch in the gut. 

"Do you think we can take this conversation somewhere that's not a coffee stand, Fiona?" Rhys asked. This was probably the only viable excuse Fiona would take without decking him. Despite her eye roll, she ended up agreeing with a nod. Rhys managed to put on a small smile as he led Fiona out of the stand. He hoped that there would be no small talk because he wasn't quite sure he could even let one word slip out at this point without acting like a fool.

"So, why are you at a coffee stand, Mr. CEO?" Fiona questioned. Oh god, it was small talk, Rhys thought. This was the worst. He turned his head to look at her. She was on the right side of him, walking a few paces behind to follow. He gulped.

"Well, CEO business can be unconventional sometimes!" Rhys managed to squeak out, crushing under the weight of his obvious embarrassment. Fiona probably sensed that he wasn't up for talking, so she just nodded and dropped the conversation thread. Relieved and with newfound vigor, Rhys led Fiona to the main Atlas HQ. It was by no means a fast walk, but Rhys didn't usually take cars of Cyclones anywhere. By the time they arrived, they both were panting.

-

"Jesus, Rhys, why couldn't we have just driven?" Fiona tried to sound as nice as possible, but she was kind of mad that they hadn't just driven to the HQ. She was already exhausted and cramped due to that spaceship ride, and this just made it worse. "We passed a million Catch-A-Rides!"

"Sorry, Fiona," His response was curt, probably because he was trying to get into his office. It looked to be a pretty easy code to put in, just five characters, but Rhys was just staring at the input screen. Fiona pat him on the back to encourage him, but it ended up being way too hard. He let out probably the wimpiest shriek ever and put his head in his hands.

"Okay, okay, I'll get the door open!" Rhys closed his eyes and put in the code without looking. The door opened, and Fiona was the first to walk in. It was a spacious office with a desk near the very back wall. She ended up noticing a picture frame on the desk. Fiona tried to walk toward it due to curiosity, but her small trek was interrupted by Rhys running to his desk, grabbing the photo, and shoving it into a desk drawer.

"Rhys, are you okay?" Fiona asked. "You're acting weird... weirder than normal, anyway." 

Rhys sighed. "We need to have a chat. About Sasha."

Rhys sat down behind his desk while Fiona took a seat on the opposite side. Fiona was relieved to finally be talking about her sister, but Rhys's behavior was unnatural ever since they met up.

"Something happened to her, didn't it?" She looked at Rhys for any indication that her fears were right. When he nodded, she felt all the hope she had built up collapse. 

"Sasha has been missing for weeks. When the war started, she desperately wanted to be involved, and I let her because I thought she would valuable to the team. I sent her and Zer0 out to get rid of a fleet of Maliwan soldiers that were trying to invade the Metroplex. They took their eyes off of her for one second, and then Zer0 said she was gone. No indication, no warning. There were no clues. I sent Zer0 out for days trying to track her, making them travel every which way to see if she would show up anywhere. She never did."

Tears welled in Fiona's eyes as she listened to Rhys's explanation. When he finally finished, she slammed her fist against the desk in anger. 

"We need to go out looking for her now!" She practically screamed, getting up from the seat.

"What do you think Zer0 is doing right now?" Rhys tried to calm Fiona, but while he was speaking she was on her way to the office's exit. Rhys, panicked, followed her.

"Tell me where Zer0 is, Rhys!" 

"I'm not going to do that, Fi-"

"Tell me now!"

"I'm not going to let what happened to Sasha happen to you!"

Fiona, who was still walking towards the door, stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned around to face Rhys. He was crying. Like, full-on sobbing. Fiona was the alarmed one now, as she had never seen Rhys like this before. Sure, he had cried in front of her a few times, much to her dismay, but never so violently. She didn't have much in the way of comforting skills, but she ended up awkwardly pulling Rhys into a hug. The crying stopped for a second, probably due to the sudden embrace, but soon Rhys started again, hugging Fiona in return. 

Fiona probably should have been a bit annoyed at this. She probably should've been out there looking for her sister. Instead, she was holding on to a sobbing, mustached Rhys, and somehow she felt the furthest way from annoyed. She felt bad. Very Bad. Ever since Rhys and Sasha left for Promethea, Fiona had no one left on Pandora to care about her. She knew that the pair loved her a lot, but they weren't ever there in person to express it, and neither of them were the type to say "I love you". Right now, though, Fiona knew how much Rhys cared about her. They had been through so much together. And she, despite her entire life being told that she "can't trust anyone", cared about Rhys as well.

By the time Fiona loosened her embrace, Rhys was already standing upright, wiping away his tears. 

"I'm... not going to leave you, Rhys," Fiona told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I promise you."

A small smile appeared on Rhys's face, and he went in for a hug again. Instead of a hug, however, he ended up barreling into Fiona and knocking them both to the ground. Fiona landed on her back, Rhys on his stomach, right on top of her. Fiona felt her breath being knocked right out of her, and by Rhys's wheezing, she suspected he felt the same. 

-

Upon realizing what his position was, Rhys tried his best to quickly get up. It was getting kind of hard to breathe, so trying to heave himself to his feet was a bit of a challenge, but he ended up accomplishing it. Fiona was still on the floor, but now she was coughing loudly. Rhys knelt at her side.

"Are you okay?" He asked. She nodded.

"Yep, just-" She let out another violent cough. "Trying to catch my breath."

Rhys let out a sigh of relief. He got up from his kneeling position, with Fiona soon following. She had a bit of a hard time getting up, her balance faltering a few times, but when Rhys took her hand to try to help her she swatted it away.

"I'm fine, Rhys," She said, managing to stand upright. "So, what do you wanna-"

Fiona's words were cut off by a commotion coming from outside. Rhys saw all of his guards rushing toward the HQ's entrance, and he immediately ran outside to follow them. He could hear footsteps coming from behind him, indicating that Fiona was trailing right behind. What he saw at the entrance made his whole mood shift.

Zer0 was leaning on to Lorelei, their entire body soaked in blood. Their stomach was covered in black fabric that looked like it was bloodstained as well. Lorelei looked just as bad, their undershirt ripped and their face covered in blood as well. Lorelei was the first to speak up.

"Zer0 got attacked by Maliwan!" They exclaimed, wiping some blood off their face. "The bloody animals ambushed them."

Rhys ran up to the two of them. He put Zer0's other arm around his neck so that they were supported by him and Lorelei. They were limp, and Rhys could hear Zer0's breath coming in short, quick bursts. 

"They passed out due to blood loss," Lorelei looked like they were on the verge of tears. "We need to get them help!"

Rhys nodded and signaled to Lorelei that they could move forward. One of the guards had called in the nurses from the medical wing, and a gurney was brought to them. Both Rhys and Lorelei carefully placed Zer0's body onto the gurney, and they ran to catch up with it as it was being pulled toward one of the two medical buildings at the HQ. 

-

Fiona pushed her way through the crowd of guards to follow Rhys. Zer0 looked to be seriously injured, and Fiona wanted to be there for them. Maybe it was selfish of her, but she also thought they might have some new information on Sasha. When she finally escaped the thick of the crowd, she could see Rhys in the distance, him, Zer0, and what looked to be another of Rhys's friends heading toward a white building. 

It was sort of hard to run after her and Rhys's little tumble just minutes before, but she ended up making it to the building only a few minutes after they entered. When Fiona walked in, she realized it was a hospital. There was a waiting room to the right side and a receptionist's desk on the left. She decided not to bother Rhys right now, as he was probably dreadfully worried about Zer0. She took a seat in the waiting room and folded her arms. It was going to be a long wait. 

-

"Fiona?"

A pair of hands gripped Fiona's shoulders, waking her almost instantly. When she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and opened them, she saw that Rhys was towering over her. She took Rhys's arms off of her shoulder and looked at him.

"How's Zer0?" She asked.

Rhys smiled. "They'll be okay, they're having surgery right now. They should be stable in a few weeks."

Fiona breathed a sigh of relief and sank into her chair. Rhys took a seat next to her, gripping the armrests. Fiona could tell he was still nervous. She put her right hand on top of Rhys's left, and she saw a faint blush tint his cheeks. 

"They'll be fine," Fiona told him, trying to sound like she knew that for certain. "Didn't they get impaled once?"

Rhys laughed. "Oh my god, yeah. We had only just met, and it sort of scared the shit out of me!" 

The two erupted into fits of giggling, which made the receptionist at the desk give them a stern look. Rhys cleared his throat and looked at the ground.

"I just... really want them to be okay," He admitted. "I don't know what I would do without them."

Fiona looked at him sadly. She didn't know that Zer0 meant this much to Rhys. She got up from her chair and pulled Rhys into a hug. 

"I promise they'll be fine," Fiona told him. Rhys immediately wrapped his arms around Fiona in reciprocation. After a few seconds of hugging, footsteps were heard, and soon a man appeared in the waiting room.

"Mr. Strongfork?" The man questioned. Rhys stood up, signaling to Fiona that maybe the hugging should stop. She complied and sat back in her chair.

"How are they?" Rhys sounded panicked once again. The man, who was most likely one of Zer0's doctors, smiled.

"They're fine, sir, the surgery is still going on, but they're almost finished," He explained. "You can go see them in the next hour."

Fiona could see Rhys's face brighten again, and she even mustered a little smile as well. She still cared about Zer0, despite not seeing them since the Vault of the Traveller fight. She would have hated for their injuries to be worse, and she especially would have hated if they... well, died. 

The doctor pulled Rhys to a corner so they could chat privately, leaving Fiona alone in the waiting room for a short time. When Rhys finally got back, he was the one who went in for the hug this time. His hands had grown sweaty, and the sweat sort of smeared Fiona's backside. He pulled away almost immediately, though, so it didn't last long.

"Do you wanna stay with me in Zer0's room tonight?" Rhys asked. Fiona thought about it for a moment. She had nowhere else to go on Promethea, she had no idea where anything was, and this was her first time seeing Rhys and Zer0 in person for literal years. So, of course, she said yes.

-

By the time Zer0's room was open for visitation, they were fast asleep. Rhys, with Fiona following close behind, slowly walked into the room so they wouldn't wake them. Rhys sat in the chair left for visitors on the left side of Zer0's bed, while Fiona sat on the chair to their right side. Looking at his friend like this, Rhys had to admit that it was really sad. Zer0 rarely, if ever, got this seriously injured on the job. Something dreadful must have happened out there for them to get this hurt. 

"Hey, where's your other friend?" Fiona's voice interrupted Rhys's thoughts. "The one with the blue hair."

"Oh, Lorelei went out a while ago," Rhys answered, making sure to keep his voice low for Zer0's sake. Fiona nodded in reply. Soon, it was completely silent. It was a pretty awkward silence, Rhys thought. Fiona was just looking at the floor with her eyes closed. She looked like she was... sleeping?

She was sleeping. After a few minutes of looking at Fiona to see any signs of lucidness, she started snoring. It was a light snore, but still noticeable due to the silence of the room. Rhys smiled. He never really thought Fiona looked cute, or maybe he did and just never thought too hard about it, but he'd never actually seen Fiona sleeping before. Sure, on their road trip way back when on the caravan, they all slept in the same place, but Fiona was usually asleep at the same time as Rhys. 

Rhys decided to get some shuteye as well. He couldn't spend all night worrying about Zer0, especially when he's barely been getting sleep recently. So, he made himself as comfortable as he could in the rickety hospital chair and dozed off.

-

When Fiona woke up, Rhys was gone. He had moved his chair to a corner of the room, probably to make sure there was no clutter. She scoffed at the thought. It was a very Rhys thing for him to do. 

She was about to get up and leave as well when she heard a familiar voice.

"Who the hell are you?" Zer0 asked. They sounded weaker than usual, and their sentence was immediately followed by loud coughing.

"It's Fiona," Fiona answered, scooting her chair closer to Zer0's bed. 

"Oh yes, I remember you," Zer0 replied. "Why are you here, though?"

"I came to find Sasha. Isn't that what you were also doing?" 

Zer0 didn't say anything for a few minutes. The silence was excruciating for Fiona. She felt bad trying to question Zer0 about their search for Sasha after surgery, but she had to know. Soon, they nodded.

"Rhys told me to go, and I was ambushed by..." Zer0 trailed off, not even bothering to finish their haiku stanza. "That's how I got this."

They lifted their blanket to reveal white bandages tinged with blood wrapped around their stomach, and Fiona could see fresh blood bleeding into the bandages. It looked really bad.

"So, you're still doing the haiku bit even with that?" Fiona was trying to be playful, but instead, it sort of came off as rude. Zer0 didn't seem to notice, though, because they just laughed weakly. 

After that, the silence returned. Fiona wanted to find Rhys, but she also wanted to see if Zer0 would speak up about anything. Promethea seemed to be a pretty peaceful planet aside from the war, so it seemed weird that they were attacked so violently. As Fiona was pondering all of this, Zer0 finally spoke up.

"I saw Sasha there," They muttered. At first, Fiona thought they were joking. She looked at them for a bit, waiting for the punchline, but it never came. It was only after a minute had passed when Fiona realized they were being serious.

"What? You did?" Fiona's heart felt like it was bursting with joy. "Where? I have to go find her!" 

"The Meridian Outskirts," Zer0 replied. "You shouldn't go, though."

"What, why not?"

"She gave me my wound."

Fiona's excitement melted into surprise and sadness. Sasha... Sasha would have never done that. Fiona knew that her sister probably knew Zer0 better than her, seeing as how she was on Promethea with them for so long. So why would she attack them?

"It must have been a mistake-"

"She thrust a spear into me. It was at close range."

Fiona put her hand over her mouth. Her lip started to quiver, and soon tears escaped her eyes. She didn't care about hiding her tears at this point. She just let them flow freely, her sobs being the only sound in the otherwise silent room. How could Sasha do this? Why would she do this? It didn't make any sense. Unless...

"Zer0... did you attack her first?" 

Fiona could see Zer0 shifting in their bed. She had hit a nerve. 

"Yes, I attacked her," Zer0 admitted, scratching their back nervously. Fiona knew it. She knew that Sasha would never have done that without good reason.

"Why would you do that? I thought you two were friends!"

"She looked very different-"

"That's no excuse!" Fiona slammed her fist against the room's door. She wasn't hearing another second of this. Zer0 tried to get a few more words out, but Fiona had already opened the door and stormed out.

-

Rhys sat at his desk, biting his nails practically to the bone. With all the worrying about Zer0, he had completely forgotten that he had actual corporate work to do. His job at the moment was filling out paperwork for an Atlas-Jakobs partnership, which would incorporate aspects of Jakobs weapons with the bullet tracking technology in Atlas's weapons. Wainwright Jakobs had spearheaded it, contacting Rhys multiple times in the mail. Rhys knew Wainwright wasn't at all like Katagawa, so he decided to just do it. Wainright had sent him some weapon designs in the mail which Rhys also had to look over, pick the best ones to make into actual weapons, and hand them over to his workers so they could, well, get to work. The paperwork he currently had to fill out would legitimize the partnership. It just involved signing his name off to approve paragraphs of words he wouldn't read, but it still stressed him out. 

While Rhys was trying to sign off with shaky hands, the door to his office opened, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fiona walk in. He felt himself smile and dropped his pen, leaning back in his chair and looking up at his friend. However, as soon as he got a clear look at Fiona, he could tell how unhappy she was. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked like she was wiping tears away with her sleeve. 

"We need to go to the Meridian Outskirts," Fiona stated. "Right now."

"What, why?" Rhys was very, very confused. He was still sitting in his chair when Fiona grabbed his wrist and pulled him away. He wasn't strong enough to break free from her grasp entirely, but he could certainly struggle against it. "Fiona, talk to me!"

"Sasha is out there, Rhys!" She practically screamed at him, a new set of tears staining her face. "We need to go get her, now!"

"Wait, what?" Rhys's heart practically stopped when he heard this. "How do you know?"

"Zer0 told me, okay, they're not important right now," Fiona continued dragging Rhys and led him to the door. It automatically opened, and as she walked out Rhys continued to struggle. Fiona turned her head to look at him. "Can you please stop struggling?"

"If you let me go, I'll come anyways! She's my fucking girlfriend, Fiona, and I would never let you do this alone!" Hearing this, Fiona reluctantly let go of Rhys. 

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"I know, I know. Let's just... go get her, okay?" Fiona nodded, making Rhys sigh in relief. He really wouldn't have been so keen to go if Fiona was just dragging him there the entire time. And besides, she probably didn't even know where the Outskirts were. She needed a guide.

"I need a guide anyways, Mr. Promethea," She said, pushing Rhys in front of her. He stumbled a bit but quickly regained his balance. He looked behind him to see Fiona smirking, trying to cover up the fact that she had been most likely crying earlier. It didn't mask anything, but Rhys did a little thumbs up at her. He then looked in front of him again and began walking to the Meridian Outskirts.

Fiona didn't really give Rhys a specific area of the Outskirts to go to, but he assumed just going there and figuring things out gradually would probably do just fine. He ended up taking a shortcut that led into a forest. There were barely any trees, and the smell of dirt clogged his nose, but he knew this was the fastest way to get to the Outskirts. Once they finally got there, Rhys finally exhaled, having held his breath for the majority of the time they were taking the shortcut.

"Okay, we're here!" He told Fiona, but she wasn't paying attention to him. Rhys saw that her eyes were focused on what looked to be a stray ECHO recording on the ground. She ran towards it and picked it up, but turned around to face Rhys a few seconds later.

"Do you have your ECHO device on you?" She asked, inspecting the log like it was secret buried treasure. Rhys dug into his pants pocket and pulled out his ECHO communicator. He always kept it handy, being the CEO of an entire corporation and all. Upon seeing the device, Fiona grabbed it from Rhys's hands and shoved the log into the cartridge extension of the communicator. The two stood in silence as it began playing.

"If anyone finds this ECHO, forget about it. Burn it, throw it off a cliff, stab it repeatedly, I don't care. I'll give you a few seconds to turn it off and do one of those things."

The voice stopped talking for half a minute. Rhys and Fiona didn't get rid of it, though. They recognized the person's voice.

"All right, have you taken out all your anger on this yet? If not, you're probably either someone I know or just a fucker that can't take a hint. If it's the latter, go fuck yourself, and if it's the former... listen to me. There are only two people I know that could probably be listening to this and know who I am, and I just thrust a spear into their stomach, so... Rhys."

Rhys's breath caught in his throat when he heard his name. 

"I know the odds of you finding this are highly unlikely, but I need you to know some things. The first is that I love you. I know I don't say it a lot, but it's true. The second is that I didn't go missing. I ran away because I'm being targeted, and you are too. By August."

Wait, what? Rhys was dumbfounded when he heard what she said. August was targeting them? That had to be a joke or something-

"This isn't a joke, Rhys. He ECHOed me a while ago, asked me to visit. He said he set up the Purple Skag on Promethea, which wasn't a lie, but..."

She trailed off, and Rhys thought he could hear choked sobs coming from the device.

"He tried to get me on his side. He said that he wanted your job, and if I helped him, I could have anything I ever wanted. I refused, but then he tried to murder me, and that's why I'm gone! Turns out our good friend August has been at the forefront of an underground bandit clan, and not the kind of COV fuckers that shoot at anyone they see. They were organized and ambushed me when you and I were trying to fight off Maliwan troops. I didn't hear them coming a- Oh, goddammit, there's only a few seconds left on this log, stupid fucki-

-

When the ECHO stopped playing, Fiona dropped it. Just as she did earlier, she started to cry. She... Sasha. Sasha was in danger.

"We need to kick August's ass, Rhys!" Fiona looked next to her to see if Rhys was all right, but she didn't see him. And then she heard the sobbing. She looked at the ground to see Rhys on his knees, crying into his hands. The sobbing just grew louder as the seconds went by. Fiona just looked at him from above. She didn't know what to do. 

She ended up kneeling next to him. He didn't seem to notice, or he did but was too busy crying to care. She slowly placed a hand on his shoulder in compassion. All of a sudden, Fiona felt a rag come over her mouth from behind. The scent and taste of chemicals entered her body. She tried to stand up, but her knees buckled, and she fell to the ground. Across from her, she could see Rhys trying to reach her, and he was about to before someone from behind him grabbed his hair and put a piece of cloth to his mouth. Fiona could hear muffled screams coming from her friend before they stopped a few moments later.

Fiona was still fighting to stay conscious. She tried to stand again, but a wave of drowsiness overcame her. Ultimately, her efforts were fruitless as she collapsed to the ground and was rendered unconscious.


End file.
